Desire rolled through her when his tongue slid across her shoulder. Sunny turned over and stared up at him, glossing her lips with her tongue.
“Is that the best you can do?” Over the years, seduction became second nature to her. She discovered little tricks in the bedroom, and men liked to prove themselves.
“Don’t say things like that.”
Her finger circled around his chest. “Why not?”
Knox captured her mouth and kissed her like he meant to take her; kissed her all the way down to her toes. His warm, wet tongue tangled with hers—deep and slow. She felt like a tiny ball of yarn tumbling down a staircase, unraveling to the very core. When his lips broke free, it left her breathless.
“I don’t want you talking like that, you got it? You’re not that kind of girl, so don’t think you have to be that way with me.”
“You said women are nothing but a good—”
“I lied,” he cut in, softening his voice. “Not with you, I don’t want it to be like that with us. You be Sunny with me, you be yourself.”
Knox kissed her reverently, and her nose filled with the musk of male and lust. His lips were soft in contrast to the stubble around his chin. It scraped against hers—but she liked it. Sunny touched his cheek, tracing the line of his jaw. He always covered his hair, so she relished seeing him without the hat. She loved the way it was wavy at the ends. It was unruly—just like him. Sunny scraped her fingers up and down his neck until he involuntarily moaned.
Knox spread her legs, cupping a heated hand over her panties.
“More,” she breathed.
“All you want, baby girl,” he said, stroking her deep.
The kiss grew to an unexpected frenzy. His body was raw power—as if she had her arms wrapped around a hurricane. She curled her fingers behind his neck, sucking on his tongue until Knox spiraled out of control, rocking his hips against her.
She broke the kiss, gasping for air.
“Is this hurting you?” He started to move. “I’m too big, let me—”
She pulled his shoulders until he crashed down on top of her. “Stay where you are,” she demanded.
Knox lifted the ends of her gown, peeling it over her head. He balled up the material and flung it across the room.
When his eyes lowered to her breasts, she became self-conscious. Sunny was curvier than she used to be. It was a rough year and those excuses for avoiding the gym were beginning to haunt her. She was always voluptuous in all the right ways, but the last man she slept with was Marco, and the two times they had sex, he never touched her. Only recently did she find out it was because he was a Mage, and their energy spiked during sex, making it impossible for them to touch a human. It seemed kinky, but left her feeling hollow and insecure.
Sunny moved her arm over them in embarrassment; maybe he didn’t like what he saw.
“Don’t you dare cover yourself,” he said, snatching a wrist and stretching out her arm. “You’re magnificent.”
His mouth came down on the first one and he moaned, like a man tasting food after a long fast. His tongue awakened tiny little nerves she never knew existed, as it swirled in rhythmic circles. Knox was exquisite in how he took his time. He savored her.
She whispered quietly into the waves of his black hair. Not quiet enough as the word reached Knox’s ears. Dark eyes rose to meet hers.
“Say it again,” he said.
She stroked his cheek with her thumb and blushed at the way he looked at her expectantly. “Lover.”
He closed his eyes.
Knox was the opposite of all the pretty boys she dated. His face carried the etchings of worry, his brow wore lines of anger, and secrecy kept those lips pressed thin. Small scars, indentations, and imperfections left her wondering if they were from his line of work… or his father. He was a man weathered, but he was beautiful.
Lips kissed beneath her breast, wandering over the curves of her hip.
She bit her lip when his tongue stroked her inner thigh. Need overwhelmed her. It was more than she could stand, and she scissored her legs against his shoulders.
When the warm heat from his mouth lapped over her panties, Sunny grabbed him by the hair. She didn’t mean to be rough, but Knox didn’t take any notice. Without hesitation, he pulled them off and went in for the real thing.
Knox didn’t tease, torment, or even ask permission. He delivered, and drove his kiss into her, pleasuring with unrelenting strokes.
“Why did you stop?” she panted.
“I don’t have anything with me so we’re just going to keep doing this because goddammit, I can’t stop. I don’t do
this
with the other women.”
When his eyes skipped to the left and his ears reddened, she knew what he meant.
Her fingers laced around the edges of his sweats, and he sucked in his stomach. “Take them off.”
The sweats came off in less than three seconds.
Sunny reached around to the bedside table, pulling a condom from the drawer. He stared at her intimately, in a way no man had ever looked at her before. In the soft glow of the light that shone through the curtain, she watched his lids close as the condom glided over his sex.
Knox cupped the back of her neck and buried himself deep inside of her. There was another connection threading between them on a different level, and a strange familiarity settled over the moment.
She caressed every muscle and groove with delicate fingers. It seemed important that he knew a touch that wasn’t just about sex, but about
him
.
There wasn’t enough air in the room when he started rocking against her.
His chest was hot and sticky, rising and falling like an empire. She pressed her mouth to his bicep—tasting him—and it was salty, and male. He drove in so deep and fast that it sought for her release.
“So good, feels so good,” he muttered. “Want you. God…
want you
.”
A poet he was not.
“Harder,” she breathed.
He obeyed, and the bed launched itself against the wall and something snapped. Might have been the headboard, or a plank underneath the bed, but it didn’t matter.
Wet sounds—delicious sounds—filled her senses. Her manicured nails scored his back and there was no hiding the fact that he liked it. Knox pounded against her—hips crashing, pressure building until the mattress followed his rhythm, tossing her about. Gripping the sheets, she struggled to hold on.
“Grab on to me,” he said, planting his fists in the bed. She reached up and locked her fingers around him, finding it easier to stay in control when she held on to Knox.
Desire tightened like a coil and she threw her head back. His demanding thrusts forced the headboard to slam against the wall.
Repeatedly.
Knox stared at her with such intensity that her legs released their hold, falling limp for him to take control.
“I want you,” he said demandingly, and fell to his elbows.
The bedside lamp fell over and crashed to the floor along with the alarm clock.
They melted over one another as Knox dropped to her side. She laughed when she heard her earring roll off the nightstand to the floor.
It took a few minutes to stop seeing tiny flashes of light, and to catch her breath again. Knox rolled onto his back and pulled Sunny over him like a blanket. His chest was warm, and they fit together in all the right places. It was a strange feeling to be exposed to a man—not physically—but in the details of her life that she only told Silver. Most men made it to her bed after a few drinks and meaningless conversation, and maybe that’s why there was always a connection lacking. She placed soft kisses on his chin.
“You shouldn’t have to hear me curse.”
That deserved a laugh. “I’m a big girl, Knox. I think I can handle a swear word or two.”
“Or two?” His chin touched his chest and he smirked. She loved the way he smiled with his lips closed. It dropped ten years on his face. Small lines etched the corners of his eyes, and when one side of his mouth curved higher than the other, Sunny curled her toes.
He smothered her with a kiss on the forehead, dipping his nose into her hair. Knox wrapped his massive arms around her back, and she felt safe in them. “Are you ready?”
“For what?”
“My signature full body massage.”
“Oh, bring it,” she said with a giggle. “I like being pampered.”
His lips brushed across the top of her head and they stayed that way for a few more minutes. It was quiet, except for his occasional sigh, and the soft hiss of his hand as it stroked her back.
“I’m just going to say it,” he said decidedly. “When I said I wanted you, I didn’t just mean sex. I want you to be my girl. You deserve better, but I can’t get you out of my head. Shit…Adam is going to give me hell for this, but I’m not a coward. I’m asking you for something I’ve never asked any woman. Be with me Sunny, and only me.”
Sunny held her breath. “You mean, you want to get serious or just—”
Fool around,
is what she was thinking. That was the obvious choice, given what just happened between them.
Knox hooked his hands beneath her arms and slid her up a fraction so they were nose to nose.
“Baby girl, if you even
think
about calling this a fling, we’re gonna have words. We fit. I’m not the kind of guy you go for, but I’ll worship you like the moon. I’m solid in my word, and I’ll take good care of you.”
Sunny pressed a finger on his lip and thought about it. Marco was the only man she ever let in, and he deceived her in the worst kind of way. He exemplified everything she desired in a man. In the end, he was the worst of them all.
Knox, on the other hand, was the complete opposite. Rough, intimidating, quiet—and yet he never gave her any reason to doubt.
“The last guy strung me along. If you do the same, I’ll never forgive you. Hell hath no fury—”
“What will everyone say? We just met.”
“Does it matter? I feel something in my gut telling me this is right. If you don’t feel it too, then tell me to go to hell.”
Sunny lowered her cheek to the pillow and rested her head close to his. “It’s never been about money, and I think you’re handsome, but I’m going to tell you right now that I don’t like that you smoke. It reminds me of… I just don’t like it. I’m not asking you to change; I’m just giving you a heads-up when you can’t find your cigarettes and the toilet is clogged.”
He chuckled, and a deep, wonderful vibration rumbled in his chest. “Is that a yes?”
She paused. “When are you leaving?”
“Who said I was going anywhere? I’m not even asking for a bigger bed to share; I like this,” he said, patting the mattress. “It’s cozy. How do you feel about a move?”
“To another apartment?”
“Cognito,” he mumbled. “The city is growing on me.”
She lifted a shoulder, nipping his lower lip with her teeth. “Nothing is holding me here anymore. I don’t have roots, if that’s what you’re asking.”
“I don’t like the idea of you being in the same city as Marco,” he stated as fact. “We’ll go back to Cognito and work things out.” He placed a kiss on her nose and took pleasure in running his fingers through her short, wavy hair. “It’s a fresh start, and I’ll help you work things out with a job.”
“I don’t think you can handle a woman like me,” she said with an arch of her brow.
He stroked those large hands up and down her naked body and she relaxed against him. “I think I can handle you just fine, baby girl.”
Chapter 12
Ethan dipped out of the stream of headlights and skidded on a patch of wet grass, holding a tranquilizer gun with a long, skinny barrel
. It didn’t look real, but the deadly intent in his eyes told me otherwise. Nate backed up until they were side by side.
“We can do this the easy way, or we can do this our way,” he said to Logan. “Hand over the Mage, or get tranked.”
Why didn’t they fight him? A Mage could throw power into another Breed, knocking them out. Why resort to weapons when Logan was outnumbered? I turned up my nose at their cowardice.